The Modern CMO Needs to be a Futurist (& a whole lot more)

Interesting insight on the future role of the modern CMO this time from the American Marketing Association. Take a look at the infographic on the eight skills required of the modern CMO. It surely strikes fear into any marketer - talk about needing to be an all rounder!

As Bhavesh Vaghela says when posting about this on LinkedIn, marketing and in particular B2B marketing is no longer just about lead generation - it's about predicting the future.

Brands, whether B2B, B2C or indeed B2P must be prepared to be agile and to react quickly to changes in customer behaviour. We operate in a fast changing world where influencers and influences emerge quickly and disappear just as fast. Brand have to be prepared to pivot - particularly in terms of communications - if they are to remain relevant and authentic to their customer base.

The CMO of tomorrow it seems must possess psychic powers - the ability to look into the future and to map what they see into company strategy. Combine this with the requirement to understand data while at the same time being highly creative and you start to understand the pressure of the role.

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There is no way we can see the future. It’s unknowable. We can look at trends and imagine what the future will hold, but we cannot know the exact future. For brands that manage risk while innovating, this is a scary proposition. Their survival depends on their ability to quickly pivot, to innovate in real time. How can companies stay relevant tomorrow, and what is the CMO's role in continuing that effort?